Quotes & Sayings About Jiu Jitsu

Jiu Jitsu is the vehicle. Not the road. — Chris Matakas

I have been given the rare opportunity to teach Jiu Jitsu for a living. This is a privilege that I wake up everyday grateful for, and a responsibility that I hold dearly. I understand how rare it is to be employed through a labor you genuinely love, and one which can be used as a vehicle for positive change in the lives of others. Even rarer still, I am often reminded of the quality of Jiu Jitsu I have learned, and the opportunity to have learned it. — Chris Matakas

The only way to consistently perform at your potential is to ask: Am I better than I was yesterday? — Chris Matakas

The high-minded pursuit of a Jiu Jitsu practitioner pursuing mastery cannot coexist well with the modern world. Our values vary immensely from our contemporaries. This pursuit leaves societal norms slaughtered in our wake. Those who share this journey will praise our efforts; those in the hive will think we have lost it. We must be willing to be misunderstood if we are to understand ourselves. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu is a mousetrap. The trap does not chase the mouse. But when the mouse grabs the cheese, the trap plays its role. — Helio Gracie

Jiu-Jitsu is like a philosophy. It helps me learn how to face life. — Helio Gracie

Have a clear-cut plan on what you wish to improve, and seek opportunities to improve it. The more conscious and honest we can be about our shortcomings, the more strength we will have to improve them. We are going to train hard anyway, we are not going to sweat any more or less. It is simply imperative that the sweat is properly directed. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu is about waiting for the right time to do the right move. — Ryron Gracie

Any advanced student will tell you the best way to recover guard is simply not to get your guard passed in the first place. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu forges friendships in a way I've never known. Being involved in an art as intimate as this, where bodily connection is a must, the common cultural boundaries of personal space are broken. You will never see more hugs, high fives, and physical expressions of love than on the mats. Ultimately, this proves to be one of the most fulfilling aspects of our pursuit of mastery. Along the way, we learn to love others as we love ourselves. — Chris Matakas

For me, I learnt from jiu-jitsu and martial arts to be humble and to go forward in life in a positive way. — Ricardo Liborio

The idea of jiu-jitsu is to give the little guy a chance to beat the big guy. — Royce Gracie

Sometimes, you don't have to win, you cannot win. but that has nothing to do with losing. — Rickson Gracie

I will continue dedicating myself to MMA in 2015, but fighting in the ADCC interests me, yes.. The Jiu-Jitsu Worlds does not interest me, I see fighters with a different goal from mine. They want to hold your sleeve, grab you and wait for time to pass. They just want to stall the game. I do not see this as a real fight, I see only as a strategy to win. For me, Jiu-Jitsu is much more than that. — Kron Gracie

I train jiu jitsu because I love jiu jitsu. But I also train knowing that my practice in this art will allow me better practice in any art. If you have learned one thing, you have learned all things, because you have learned how to learn. I can think of no more worthwhile pursuit of education. — Chris Matakas

Listen Wanderlei, I will do a home invasion on you. I will cut the power to your house and the next thing you'll hear is me climbing up your stairs in a pair of night vision goggles I bought in the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine. I'll pick the lock to the master room door, take a picture of you in bed with the Nogueira brothers working on your 'jiu-jitsu'. I'll take said quote unquote photograph, post it at dorksfrombrazil, password - not required, username - not required. That, Wanderlei, is how you threaten someone. Dummy. — Chael Sonnen

I am fortunate to be content with having very little, and so I never wanted the new car, fancy clothes, the big TV and the video games. All I ever wanted to do was read, walk through the woods and do Jiu Jitsu. When this is the foundation upon which your life is built, you need very little in the way of material security. — Chris Matakas

We must remember that science is a way of using empirical evidence to better understand our world. We are all scientists, just many of us are not very good ones. However, we are all capable of exercising our intellects in a purposeful, linear pursuit of knowledge. — Chris Matakas

If you are fortunate enough to have a particular activity with which you find greatest joy and technical success, it is your responsibility as a growing human being to continue that study. Whatever your endeavor, if you can expand upon the knowledge in your strongest subject, that new found understanding of all things will trickle down to every other area of your life. — Chris Matakas

The essence of jiu-jitsu is philosophy. — David Mamet

Jiu Jitsu is cognitively-complex, so much so that there is a great barrier to entry in terms of intellect. I have never met a great Jiu Jitsu player who was not highly intelligent, and I don't think I ever will. — Chris Matakas

I believe the real reason we pursue anything in life is not for the thing itself, but for who we become on the way to its accomplishment. We strive to accomplish things in the attempt to mold ourselves. The greatest benefits Jiu Jitsu will have in your life will have nothing to do with Jiu Jitsu. It is this simple understanding that allows me to persist in my study. Even on the rare days when I may not have a burning desire to practice Jiu Jitsu, I am reminded that my practicing Jiu Jitsu is more accurately my practicing to become a better human being. The lessons I learn on the mat will serve me in every area of life
personal development, relationships, business, and the like. — Chris Matakas

We must remember that regardless of our differences in rank we are all equal as human beings. You can always tell how caring and compassionate others are in their actions towards those "below" them. Of course you are going to treat your black belt professor kindly, but how do you treat the white belt taking their first class? In spite of the division in belt rank there must be no division as people. — Chris Matakas

Relationships formed through Jiu Jitsu are deeply rooted in respect for one another, and this is often not the case in matters of modern society. — Chris Matakas

Autopilot is great, and removal of thought is one of the highest ideals of training. But removal of thought in the moment must be preceded by purposeful thought beforehand. — Chris Matakas

Through Jiu Jitsu I have developed many of the most meaningful relationships in my life, and if that were the only benefit of my practice, Jiu Jitsu would still be the best endeavor I have ever undertaken. — Chris Matakas

By becoming a black belt, you will become whatever it is you wanted to be in the first place, and Jiu Jitsu will have served its aim. — Chris Matakas

Consistently failing is nothing more than an indication that you are progressing. The more we fail the farther we will see. Failure is not an option; it is the only option. A master is a master because he has had the courage to fail and the wisdom to learn from it. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu is meant to serve us, not the other way around. It is meant to make you more of whatever it is you already are. It is meant to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is meant to bring to conscious attention all that once went unseen. It is meant to make you more loving. It is meant to make you more wise, but less certain. It is meant to make us humble, yet supremely confident. It is meant to remind us of our frailty while simultaneously making us feel invincible. — Chris Matakas

If you can wrestle but not play Jiu Jitsu, or you can play Jiu Jitsu but not wrestle, you are not a complete grappler and lack the sufficient skills to safely subdue an opponent. — Chris Matakas

All of Jiu Jitsu is finding a way to get your partner to willingly go where you want him to go in the first place. — Chris Matakas

We have an obligation to ourselves to foster the environment that allows for our self-actualization. Rather than my gifts serving me, I must serve them. I want to be a steward of the best aspects of my character and assist them in their fulfillment through proper discipline and habits. — Chris Matakas

The only guys that make it through are the guys that make it through are the guys that have a complete control of their ego where they tap out in the beginning, all the time, you're always losing in the beginning ... Your ego can get bruised if you don't have control of it. So what ends up happens is Jiu Jitsu is the ultimate douchebag filter. — Eddie Bravo

I have never been as alive or awake as I have been through Jiu Jitsu. — Chris Matakas

Your progress as a Jiu Jitsu practitioner is a direct reflection of the standards you have for yourself. — Chris Matakas

It is fellowship, this most fundamental need on our way toward achieving our highest expression of the human experience, which Jiu Jitsu provides. — Chris Matakas

There is no concrete way to play Jiu Jitsu, and this is why so many different types of people find joy in it. — Chris Matakas

In Jiu Jitsu an inch is a mile, and a second is an eternity. Use each wisely. — Chris Matakas

The time we spend talking about Jiu Jitsu is time not spent practicing Jiu Jitsu. This is a necessary aspect of study, but it is one we mustn't lose ourselves in; we learn best by doing. — Chris Matakas

Mrs Edith Garrud famously opened a school of jiu-jitsu and trained 'The Bodyguard', a group of suffragette sympathisers who protected the leaders of the Suffragette Movement from attack during their public appearances. — E.W. Barton-Wright

Jiu-Jitsu for sure will save your ass, one way or another. Not necessarily a physical fight but also being able to deal with yourself, know about yourself, and really improve yourself as a whole. — Kron Gracie

When you first start to do jiu-jitsu everyone has the goal of being a black belt. You want to be great at everything you do. — Junior Dos Santos

Jiu-jitsu is personal efficiency to protect the weaker, which anyone can do. It is the force of leverage against brute force. — Helio Gracie

Anyone who is serious about jiu-jitsu should know that the ability to defeat an opponent is nothing more than a metaphor for the ultimate combat, for the most significant victories are the ones we accomplish within ourselves — Rorion Gracie

I believe that which you study is only matched in importance by the sincerity with which you approach it. — Chris Matakas

I'd always told people that I would have liked to pursue some sort of professional fight career. I don't know if I'm quite right for it, since I'm extremely prone to injury. I've been boxing for a couple years, and I've messed around with some Jiu-Jitsu, and I've always felt that there's such a passion in a real fighter's heart. — Matt Cohen

We call it training. Not because we are training for Jiu Jitsu. We are training for life. — Chris Matakas

We must not learn to try harder. The key is to learn how not to try in the first place. — Chris Matakas

To achieve anything we must grind, but to enjoy anything we must flow. — Chris Matakas

For the sincere student, it mustn't be enough to simply understand Jiu Jitsu. We must seek to understand ourselves. — Chris Matakas

I'm a very focused person. If I'm focusing on something I don't like distractions and I like to just do that one thing. And Jiu-Jitsu and MMA basically became that one thing for me. — Gunnar Nelson

When I started out, Jiu-Jitsu was really an elite thing in Brazil, and there was some prejudice towards poorer kids, so I had to learn things on my own. Some of my neighbours started doing Jiu-Jitsu, so I started watching it, and then started rolling with them. It wasn't organized training, but it was better than nothing. — Anderson Silva

In Jiu Jitsu, we often fall into the trap of simply trying a technique "harder," rather than recognizing that it is a poorly chosen tool for the task at hand. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu is a vehicle for self-discovery and growth. It reminds me of my ego, of my insecurities, and of my shortcomings. — Chris Matakas

I've been training in Jiu-jitsu for about six years and I'm very fortunate to live in that world. All the fighters hang out and have lunch together just about every day and trade stories. And I've always been fascinated how in the world of Jiu-jitsu in L.A. everybody in the fight world - cops, special forces, bouncers, stuntmen - connected across different lines. — David Mamet

I do Jiu Jitsu so I can protect you when I fight you. — Ryron Gracie

Jiu Jitsu provides a place of fellowship that, unfortunately, our society has largely failed to create. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu at the end of the day, is the art of expressing yourself honestly. Everytime you put on a Gi, you can't lie. — Saulo Ribeiro

If you are not comortable to deal with an opponent 50 lbs heavier than you, there is something wrong with your Jiu Jitsu ... — Rickson Gracie

Jiu Jitsu can be a source of total transparency such as a mirror, but it takes a conscious choice to see what it has to say. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu is basic training for life. We are training not to learn how to fight, but how to live. — Chris Matakas

Jiu-jitsu puts you completely in the moment, where you must have a complete focus on finding a solution to the problem. This trains the mind to build that focus, to increase your awareness, your capacity to solve problems. — Rickson Gracie

The pine fought the storm and broke. The willow yielded to the wind and snow and did not break. Practice Jiu-Jitsu in just this way. — Kano Jigoro

I've been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu all my life. Boxing, kickboxing. I'm definitely not a fighter, but I defend my honor. — Spencer Pratt

I train because it makes every area of my life better, and it makes me better at every area of my life. — Chris Matakas

The Jiu Jitsu I created was designed to give the weak ones a chance to face the heavy and strong. — Helio Gracie

I don't even know how to swim! — Lea Thompson

We are never truly ourselves as we are mid-roll. — Chris Matakas

We seek to understand Jiu Jitsu as a vehicle to understand ourselves. We have different explicit goals, from getting in shape, learning self-defense or competition, but tacitly we all seek mastery of ourselves. — Chris Matakas

The big, strong, tough guy goes to class, and he keeps getting tapped by the skinny, technical guy. It begins to change him. It makes him humble. That's what Jiu Jitsu does to you. It makes you humble. — Relson Gracie

Spend more time in a Jiu Jitsu gi than in street clothes. — Ryron Gracie

The best thing that could've happened to me was that I learned a lot in Vegas, but I didn't know how to implement it. Whenever I came to Texas, all we had was Marc Laimon, jiu-jitsu coach. We didn't have a striking coach. So me and him started to just develop our own game, because he knows nothing about striking. We sat down and we sort of found my style. I think that was the best thing that could've happened to me. — Johny Hendricks

An arm bar in a vacuum is worthless. It is the realization of the truths which constitute that arm bar that is the real treasure we seek. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu uses us to express itself, and the best thing we can do to is to become a vehicle capable of expressing Jiu Jitsu with all of its perfection minus our imperfections. — Chris Matakas

After I received my blue belt, I soon recognized that the belts were simply an external representation of an inner experience, and that they mattered little compared to the person I was becoming. — Chris Matakas

Boxing, jiu-jitsu, scaling the Matterhorn ... I did cardio before cardio was cool. — Theodore Roosevelt

Jiu Jitsu gave me the opportunity to be a real human being. It opened my heart and my mind. I am kinder, more gentle and more loving due to my efforts in this art. — Chris Matakas

Relativity is a beautiful, irrifutable truth. We must acknowledge that wearing a black belt in jiu jitsu does not make you a black belt in life. In the home, there are black belts who are white belt fathers, and there are white belts who are black belt fathers. This holds true for all areas of life. A black belt does not mean you are successful in life. It does mean that you have mastered this art to an enormous degree, and that the skills you have acquired can be transmuted to a plethora of other activities. It does not mean, however, that you have done this. — Chris Matakas

These Taoists' ideas have greatly influenced all our theories of action, even to those of fencing and wrestling. Jiu-jitsu, the Japanese art of self-defence, owes its name to a passage in the Tao-teking. In jiu-jitsu one seeks to draw out and exhaust the enemy's strength by non-resistance, vacuum, while conserving one's own strength for victory in the final struggle.
In art the importance of the same principle is illustrated by the value of suggestion. In leaving something unsaid the beholder is given a chance to complete the idea and thus a great masterpiece irresistibly rivets your attention until you seem to become actually a part of it. A vacuum is there for you to enter and fill up the full measure of your aesthetic emotion. — Okakura Kakuzo

There is no more valuable skill than studentship. The farther we go down one area of human understanding, the more we see the corollaries that all activities share. Everything I do for the rest of my life, all the skills I acquire, will be made possible because of my time spent on the mats. It has revealed a symbiosis between all things that I never knew existed. — Chris Matakas

Jiu Jitsu has given me an education in education, which I now see is the most valuable education there is. — Chris Matakas

I can think of no more worthwhile aim than pursuing mastery in this craft while transcending one's own limitations. — Chris Matakas

My father was a naturalist and a very spiritual person, who had a great desire to pass on his knowledge to others, so that they could receive the benefits of Jiu Jitsu as well. Growing up in this environment, I learned the art of Jiu Jitsu is actually a method through which one strives for self-perfection. — Carlos Gracie Jr.

I have seen far by seeing through the lens of Jiu Jitsu. I have exchanged a great deal of physical health for these insights, and these were trades worth making. My efforts were worth the return. I have sacrificed much in the name of this craft. Not for trophies or belts or prestige. For these fall away like dust. I pursued this art so fervently because it was not actually Jiu Jitsu I pursued. It was myself. — Chris Matakas

After jiu-jitsu, you will appreciate how well the body works without our even realizing or recognizing it. You will, however, have some insight into its extraordinariness when you have trouble wiping your bum because it hurts to straighten your arm. I guarantee at that point and time you will really appreciate what your body can do. — Mark Johnson

The road from white belt to black is long and arduous; most never reach the end. There are simply too many obstacles of daily life, and too much effort and attention required, for this to be something that the majority of practitioners achieve. This is why a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, especially from a reputable source, is the pinnacle of martial arts rank. It is valuable because of what must be traded for its achievement. — Chris Matakas

Absolutely, says Steve Maxwell. And with the little device in his pocket, he can prove it. Steve is a former world champion Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter and now a strength-and-conditioning coach who specializes in recovering lost innovations. "The old-timers knew what was up with fascia long before we even had a word for it," he explains. "You'll always be safe if you go back to the mighty men of old, the guys before the 1950s. Look at the old gyms, with their Indian clubs and medicine balls. What's that all about if not balance, range of motion, being fluid, using elastic recoil? — Christopher McDougall

The infinitude of Jiu Jitsu allows for the infinitude of the types of practitioners. There exists a game for each and every one of us which is specifically possible within the confines of our particular skill set. — Chris Matakas

Nothing worthwhile ever came from divided attention. — Chris Matakas

There is no losing in Jiu-Jitsu. You either win or you learn. — Carlos Gracie Jr.

Learn Gracie Jiu-Jitsu so that when a giant walks by, you don't think to yourself 'oh no,' you think to yourself 'how interesting! — Rener Gracie

I don't know Jiu-Jitsu, I don't know wrestling, all I know is how to fight. Period. — James Toney

As an instructor, my goal has always been to use Jiu Jitsu as a vehicle to help our students achieve their goals, whatever the case may be. I have yet to find a better vehicle for growth, and the moment I do I will certainly pursue it with the rivaled fervor that I approached Jiu Jitsu. — Chris Matakas

When you realize you are no longer made of glass, you lose the desire to demonstrate that fragility in others. — Chris Matakas

I grew up in Westlake Villiage, a suburb of L.A. There was a guy there who was a fighter and was like, 'I'll teach you to box.' I started a little bit of boxing, then it crossed over into jiu-jitsu. I was into it for a little while, but then I started doing basketball, baseball, team sports. — Jonathan Lipnicki

Jiu-Jitsu has been one of the most valuable tools I've ever had in my life. — Joe Rogan

I believe we must pursue mastery for who we become along the way in its achievement. When we progress in Jiu Jitsu, that newfound experience and wisdom transcends into all areas of our lives. We use Jiu Jitsu as the vehicle for growth, but that growth radiates over all of human activity. Someone who devotes time and energy in learning this skill is learning far more than how to subdue an opponent. The student learns persistence, perseverance, pattern recognition, problem solving, and most importantly, learning how to learn. In the arena of life, these virtues are far more valuable than any guard pass. — Chris Matakas

If Jiu Jitsu does not make you a better father, son, mother, daughter, wife or husband, you are missing the point. If Jiu Jitsu does not leave you viewing strangers in a kinder light, you are missing the point. If you are not better equipped to deal with the vicissitudes of life due to your training, then you are not really training. — Chris Matakas

My growth as a human being has been directly proportional to my growth as a marital artist. — Chris Matakas

This is a trust that you just cannot find in modern society for there are no conditions to forge it. — Chris Matakas